Any thoughts on NOrthstar Fuel meters

[Dirtguy]

I'm in the market for a fuel meter. I know that Floscan is the standard. I also looked at Faria gauges since my gauges are all Faria. Good stuff.

I did find some Navman stuff, now Northstar. They have the same functions as the Floscan and are able to be calibrated, a very important feature. Any thoughts on their stuff?

They have been making radar for many years.

DG

[Doug V]

I bought a Navman F-210 earlier this year. I am currently in the process of calibrating the gauge.

I tried calibrating it after running 16 gallons. Apparently that was not enough quantity to accurately calibrate it, because it was a few gallons off upon refill of the tank.

I will try to run at least 50 plus gallons through it before the next recalibration. I have heard that the units are very accurate, so am hoping that the next recalibration will do the trick.

The F-210 is the simpler of the fuel flow gauges that Northstar offers. I think it would have been better for me to save a few more pennies and buy the unit that has the GPS input for instant MPG calculation while under way.

Doug

[Dirtguy]

Thanks!

DG

[sixty]

We have a Northstar F310 with a transducer on each engine. I can't even calibrate the damn things cause some times I get bizzare readings, no readings and other times it is close to what the fuel burn for the engines are from the factory. Alot of people have issues with bad transducers and Northstar takes care of it, but its a total pain in the ass to change them (on my boat atleast).

I totally wish I would have gone with Floscans since they have a far better transducer design, but I was taken in by the ease of use and functionality of the Northstar. I should probably call thier tech support, but I haven't getten around to it yet

[Luhr'd Away]

Not real knowledgable on either, but I hear Flowscan is the best. I will be investing in the near future.

[Dirtguy]

Both transuducers are turbine. They count the vanes going by a sensor/pickup. The Floscan has a metal body (aluminum).

The Northstar is plastic as is the Faria Fuel Manager. The Faria is functionally identical to the Northstar and the manual is almost identical, to the point of indicating that Northstar makes the Faria fuel manager.

The N-Star has a pinned harness/connector.

DG

[piperca]

Carl, go with a Floscan, it's what they do! You can access the manuals on the Floscan site to see how it's set up/calibrated, etc.

[sdfishkiller]

my northstar f210 is sweet, easy install, works right out of the box, all plastic, no rust. my mechanic said the floscans suck and are expensive for what you get. he likes northstar.

my uncle's floscan is getting rusty.

I feel I made the right choice.

[MATTANZA]

I have a Floscan on my Shamrock and a navman 300 series on my Whaler. I'll take the Navman over the Floscan anyday! I had to calibrate my Floscan and it's still not as accurate as the Navman. My Navman is right on the money out of the box. The Navman was way easier to install. I had to add pulastion dampers on the Flowscan. I also prefer the Navman digital read out over the bouncing Floscan needle.

[Pau Hana]

Flowscan is good, but there's a host of systems that are just as good (Lowrance, Namvam, Faria, etc), and don't cost as much.

If you have a NMEA 2000 plotter/system, you can plug the Lowrance into the network, and get the info on your current display.

[Its A Keeper]

I have had a Northstar on my boat for about 6 months now.

No problems to date, installing it was easy. It works great as far as I am concerned.

[Dirtguy]

Thanks guys! My F210 showed up UPS today. $99.95!

Installing it this weekend.

DG